Lady Cats 2nd, Cats fourth at Hereford

March 31, 2012

HEREFORD — Junior Jenna Sievers won two events and Clovis High's girls put together a solid overall outing to finish second in the Hereford Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
Canyon Randall took the team championship with 166 points to 155 for Clovis. The CHS boys, meantime, finished fourth with 87 points, trailing Amarillo Palo Duro (145), Plainview (113) and Hereford (94).
The Lady Cats placed third or better in all four relays, qualifying their 400 and 800 relay teams for Class 5A state competition with respective times of 50.21 (in Friday's prelims) and 1:46.87.
"It was a real good meet for the girls," Lady Cats coach Mike Hankins said. "We ran some quality qualifying relay times."
Sievers won high jump competition at 5-2 and the 100 hurdles in 16.31 seconds. She was also second in the 300 hurdles with a time of 49.38.
Senior Shatia Phillips ran 1-2 in the 200, both qualifying for state in times of 24.44 and 26.09, and they also competed on the first-place 400 and 800 relays.
"Shatia Phillips was just amazing," Hankins said. "That 25.44 was a great 200, and Sasha was right behind her.
"And I was really proud of (senior) Gladys Miranda (a state qualifying 12:06.15 in the 3,200). She's our first two-miler to qualify (for state) on time since about 2001, and Maddie (McNaughton, third in a qualifying time of 12:09.39) was right behind her."
The boys' highlight came in shot put, where senior Kenny Betts bested his previous top performance by more than two feet in winning at 56-7. He's just over three feet off the school mark of 59-10 set in 2010 by Richie Chavez.
"Every week he's gotten better," Cats coach Darren Kelley said. "The cool thing is that's the second-best throw in Clovis High School history.
"Our 4×2 (relay, second in 1:31.9) ran really well. Traivon (Sopila) didn't run on that (due to injury), but C.J. (Ransom) stepped in and ran a really good leg."
Kelley said the Cats also had their best 400 relay time of the year.